May’s exit strategy | 16 August 2018

There’s an advertising campaign for the Swiss Alps at the moment urging people to go hiking there ‘and find the route back to yourself’. As Theresa May treks through the mountains of Switzerland on her annual summer holiday, Tory MPs are wondering what route she might find, or what life-changing ideas she might return with. The Prime Minister’s infamous decision to call a snap election occurred to her while hiking in Snowdonia. A year on from that vote, her problems have only increased — but she has clung on. The question, for her and for her party, is how much longer she clings on for.

The standout achievement of the May premiership has so far been her extraordinary durability. She has repeatedly defied — some would say broken — the laws of political gravity. She blew her majority and survived. She delivered a conference speech that went wrong on every level imaginable, and then easily shrugged off a potential rebellion.